Dinocratis planned the city in squares, like a chessboard with two main streets interlaced vertically and horizontally extending from east to west as well as from north to south.

Alexandria had 5 districts, each one named after a letter of the first five letters in the Greek Alphabet: A (Alpha); B (Beta); G (Gamma); D (Delta) and E (Epsilon).

The revival of the town in the 19th century, however, brought about a profound change in the city’s identity.

With the significant increase in agricultural exports, the influx of native Egyptians to the city, and the formation and integration of the Egyptian state, Alexandria became tied to the Nile valley more closely than ever before.

The Eastern harbor was really where the old harbor from the Middle Ages was located.

Of modern Alexandria, the oldest section is along the causeway which links what was once Pharos island with the mainland and includes the districts of Gumrok (the oldest dating to about the 16th century and known as the customs district) Anfushi, and Ras el-Tin (Cape of Figs).

As a result, it also became the locus of an emergent Egyptian national consciousness.